Politifact.com: Statements from Ron Johnsonhttp://www.politifact.com/personalities/ron-johnson/Statements from Ron Johnson reviewed by Politifact.comen-usTue, 10 Mar 2015 18:21:44 -0400Ron Johnson: &quot;The Iranian parliament will get to say yes or no on this deal, and I think the United States Congress should have the exact same input into the process.&quot;
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/mar/10/ron-johnson/ron-johnson-irans-parliament-gets-vote-nuclear-dea/The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly False | Ron Johnson: Iran's parliament gets to vote on nuclear deal, Congress should too
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<p>Republican Sen. Ron Johnson wants President Barack Obama to seek Congress&rsquo; approval before finalizing a deal with Iran, an agreement that would halt the country&rsquo;s nuclear weapons program in exchange for sanction relief. Obama has argued that since the agreement is not a treaty, Congress&rsquo; approval isn&rsquo;t needed. But Johnson, R-Wis., one of 47 GOP senators who signed a controversial letter to Iran critical of the negotiations, isn&rsquo;t buying it. &quot;The Iranian parliament will get to say yes or no on this deal,&quot; Johnson said March 8, &quot;and I think the United States Congress should have the exact same input ...</p> <a href="/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/mar/10/ron-johnson/ron-johnson-irans-parliament-gets-vote-nuclear-dea/">>> More</a>Tue, 10 Mar 2015 18:21:44 -0400http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/mar/10/ron-johnson/ron-johnson-irans-parliament-gets-vote-nuclear-dea/Ron Johnson: Two-thirds of the federal budget is &quot;permanent law ... it&#39;s permanently appropriated.&quot;
http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2014/dec/19/ron-johnson/most-federal-spending-permanently-appropriated-wis/The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly True | Most federal spending is 'permanently appropriated,' Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson says
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<p>Contemplating January 2015 -- when his fellow Republicans will control the U.S. Senate as well as the House -- U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin drew attention to one of his favorite topics: the size of the federal budget. Johnson was interviewed Dec. 11, 2014 by conservative talk show host Vicki McKenna on WIBA-AM in Madison. &quot;Here&#39;s another reality -- and most people, unfortunately, don&#39;t understand this,&quot; he began. &quot;All these budget fights are really only over a third of the budget. Two-thirds of the budget is permanent law.&quot; Johnson added: &quot;It&#39;s permanently appropriated. Obamacare, Medicare, Social Security ...</p> <a href="/wisconsin/statements/2014/dec/19/ron-johnson/most-federal-spending-permanently-appropriated-wis/">>> More</a>Fri, 19 Dec 2014 09:00:00 -0500http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2014/dec/19/ron-johnson/most-federal-spending-permanently-appropriated-wis/Ron Johnson: &quot;Kids coming from an affluent background&quot; are &quot;taking advantage of all these student loan programs and grants&quot; while many middle-class families with no connection to college are picking up the tab.
http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2014/aug/13/ron-johnson/ron-johnson-affluent-taking-advantage-student-loan/The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly False | Ron Johnson: Affluent taking advantage of student loans at expense of middle class families
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<p>Roughly 40 million students have taken out loans to pay for college, contributing to about $1.2 trillion in outstanding loan balances nationwide, according to the Federal Reserve. Those students graduate with $30,000 in loan debt on average and about half of them worry about paying that debt back, a 2013 Urban Institute study found. &nbsp; And according to Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, the federal government is to blame for a system that is out of whack. &quot;I&rsquo;ve got a problem where you&rsquo;ve got kids coming from an affluent background, taking advantage of all these student loan programs and ...</p> <a href="/wisconsin/statements/2014/aug/13/ron-johnson/ron-johnson-affluent-taking-advantage-student-loan/">>> More</a>Wed, 13 Aug 2014 05:00:00 -0400http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2014/aug/13/ron-johnson/ron-johnson-affluent-taking-advantage-student-loan/Ron Johnson: Before the terrorist attacks in Benghazi, &quot;the State Department not only failed to honor repeated requests for additional security, but instead actually reduced security in Libya.&quot;
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http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2014/may/19/ron-johnson/hillary-clintons-state-department-reduced-security/The Truth-o-Meter says: True | Hillary Clinton's State Department cut security in Libya before deadly terror attacks, Sen. Ron Johnson says
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<p>With the launch of a new Benghazi investigation, Republicans will once again scrutinize the actions of Hillary Rodham Clinton&#39;s State Department in the months leading up to the deadly terrorist attacks in that Libyan port city. U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson signaled as much on May 6, 2014, two days before the GOP-led House of Representatives voted to open what by some counts is the eighth Benghazi investigation. In an opinion article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Johnson alleged that a &quot;dereliction of duty&quot; by Clinton contributed to the deaths of the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other ...</p> <a href="/wisconsin/statements/2014/may/19/ron-johnson/hillary-clintons-state-department-reduced-security/">>> More</a>Mon, 19 May 2014 05:00:00 -0400http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2014/may/19/ron-johnson/hillary-clintons-state-department-reduced-security/Ron Johnson: Even though Chicago has &quot;the most stringent gun laws on the books,&quot; it still &quot;has the highest murder rate&quot; in the country.
http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2014/mar/02/ron-johnson/us-sen-ron-johnson-links-strict-gun-control-laws-h/The Truth-o-Meter says: Half-True | U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson links strict gun control laws in Chicago with a high murder rate
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<p>Citing the number of school shootings since Sandy Hook, a woman asked U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson at one of his town hall meetings why he doesn&rsquo;t support expanded background checks for gun purchases. The Wisconsin Republican responded by connecting strict gun control with a high rate of homicide. &quot;I&rsquo;ll repeat it: I think we have enough gun laws on the books; we should enforce those,&quot; Johnson told his audience in Appleton on Feb. 18, 2014. &quot;But, if you really take a look -- again, look at the facts. The most stringent gun laws on the books are in places ...</p> <a href="/wisconsin/statements/2014/mar/02/ron-johnson/us-sen-ron-johnson-links-strict-gun-control-laws-h/">>> More</a>Sun, 02 Mar 2014 05:00:00 -0500http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2014/mar/02/ron-johnson/us-sen-ron-johnson-links-strict-gun-control-laws-h/Ron Johnson: &quot;The average rate of fraud&quot; in the Earned Income Tax Credit, Medicare, Medicaid and food stamps programs &quot;is 20 to 25 percent.&quot;
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http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2014/jan/20/ron-johnson/fraud-claims-20-25-cents-every-1-spent-four-govern/The Truth-o-Meter says: Pants on Fire! | On average, 20 to 25 cents of every $1 spent on four government assistance programs is lost to fraud, Sen. Ron Johnson says
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<p>Once a month, the Waukesha County Republican Party hosts &quot;Pints and Politics,&quot; a Friday evening gathering at a suburban Milwaukee restaurant that is &quot;open to anyone conservative.&quot; The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel covered the soiree on Jan. 10, 2014, when the special guest was U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis. When a woman asked Johnson about the Internal Revenue Service enforcing provisions of the Affordable Care Act, he expressed doubt about how effective the IRS would be. Then Johnson made an allegation about government assistance programs that packed the punch of a beer and a shot. &quot;Do you realize the ...</p> <a href="/wisconsin/statements/2014/jan/20/ron-johnson/fraud-claims-20-25-cents-every-1-spent-four-govern/">>> More</a>Mon, 20 Jan 2014 05:00:00 -0500http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2014/jan/20/ron-johnson/fraud-claims-20-25-cents-every-1-spent-four-govern/Ron Johnson: Under President Obama&rsquo;s health-care reforms, the premium for &quot;an average plan for a family didn&#39;t go down by $2,500 per year, it&#39;s gone up about $2,500 per year.&quot;
http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2013/dec/15/ron-johnson/obamacare-health-insurance-premiums-havent-gone-do/The Truth-o-Meter says: Half-True | Under Obamacare, health insurance premiums haven't gone down, they've gone up, Ron Johnson says
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<p>When it comes to statistics, chart-loving U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson seems like the guy who tries to get his comb-over just-so before he goes out for the evening. Meticulous. But the Wisconsin Republican wasn&rsquo;t pointing to any charts (that we could see) on Dec. 5, 2013 when he did a Fox News Radio interview about one of the federal laws he most likes to skewer: The Affordable Care Act. &quot;It&rsquo;s not affordable,&quot; Johnson stated on &quot;Kilmeade and Friends&quot; before making this claim about health insurance premiums. &quot;An average (annual) plan for a family didn&#39;t go down by $2,500, ...</p> <a href="/wisconsin/statements/2013/dec/15/ron-johnson/obamacare-health-insurance-premiums-havent-gone-do/">>> More</a>Sun, 15 Dec 2013 05:00:00 -0500http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2013/dec/15/ron-johnson/obamacare-health-insurance-premiums-havent-gone-do/Ron Johnson: &quot;Republicans have proposed dozens of (health care) solutions designed to help control costs and improve quality.&quot;
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2013/nov/26/ron-johnson/johnson-said-republicans-have-proposed-dozens-solu/The Truth-o-Meter says: Half-True | Republicans have proposed many solutions to control health care costs and improve quality, Ron Johnson says
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<p>As Republicans continue to score points bashing the early struggles of President Barack Obama&rsquo;s health care reform law, the common refrain from Democrats is to claim their GOP counterparts lack an alternative. It has fit neatly into their characterization of Republicans as the party of &quot;no.&quot; For their part, Republicans have consistently said that&rsquo;s not the case. &quot;Throughout the health care debate, Republicans have proposed dozens of solutions designed to help control costs and improve quality &mdash; without surrendering control of your personal health care decisions to nameless bureaucrats in Washington,&quot; said Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., during the Republican national ...</p> <a href="/truth-o-meter/statements/2013/nov/26/ron-johnson/johnson-said-republicans-have-proposed-dozens-solu/">>> More</a>Tue, 26 Nov 2013 16:41:55 -0500http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2013/nov/26/ron-johnson/johnson-said-republicans-have-proposed-dozens-solu/Ron Johnson: On average, college students &quot;are taking six years to get a four-year degree.&quot;
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http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2013/aug/11/ron-johnson/average-college-degree-takes-six-years-us-sen-ron-/The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly True | On average, a college degree takes six years, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson says
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<p>It used to be that college students joked about being on &quot;the five-year plan&quot; in their quest to earn a four-year degree. Nowadays, according to U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, you can add another year. In a July 17, 2013 interview with Politico, the Wisconsin Republican made a critique that could be summarized like this: Young people are made to think that the only path to success is a four-year degree. They have been &quot;enticed&rsquo; to take on large debt because subsidies limit interest rates on student loans. The availability of loans and grants has led to increases in ...</p> <a href="/wisconsin/statements/2013/aug/11/ron-johnson/average-college-degree-takes-six-years-us-sen-ron-/">>> More</a>Sun, 11 Aug 2013 05:00:00 -0400http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2013/aug/11/ron-johnson/average-college-degree-takes-six-years-us-sen-ron-/Ron Johnson:
A recent study of a proposed cap-and-trade policy&rsquo;s effect on Wisconsin consumers showed it could &quot;raise gasoline prices by 141 percent and electricity rates by 171 percent&quot; by 2030.
http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2013/apr/28/ron-johnson/ron-johnson-says-recent-study-showed-wisconsin-gas/The Truth-o-Meter says: Mostly False | Ron Johnson says recent study showed Wisconsin gas and electricity prices would skyrocket under a cap and trade policy
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<p> Ron Johnson described believers in man-made causes of climate change as &quot;crazy&quot; when he ran for U.S. Senate in 2010, saying that sunspot activity or &quot;just something in the geologic eons of time&quot; were more likely explanations for extreme weather. Now in his third year in the Senate, &nbsp;Johnson is markedly more diplomatic when responding to constituents who want him to support limits on greenhouse gas emissions. &quot;Thank you for taking the time to contact me regarding cap-and-trade policies and climate change,&quot; he wrote to Greg Everett, a retired musician from Conover ...</p> <a href="/wisconsin/statements/2013/apr/28/ron-johnson/ron-johnson-says-recent-study-showed-wisconsin-gas/">>> More</a>Sun, 28 Apr 2013 09:00:00 -0400http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2013/apr/28/ron-johnson/ron-johnson-says-recent-study-showed-wisconsin-gas/